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ADDRESS 

Delivered by 

William Foster Peirce, L. H. D., Chaplain 

President of Kenyon College 




at the Annual Dinner of the 

OHIO SOCIETY 
SONS of the AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



at HOLLENDEN HOTEL, CLEVELAND 
May 1916 



El 310 

.7^3 T 






Lessons from the Fathers 




INCE the summer of 1914 an enormous re- 
sponsibility has rested upon the government 
of the United States. The great nations of 
the world have divided into two hostile 
camps. Western Europe has broken in two 
and civilization itself seems threatened with destruction. 
The very foundations of international law and justice 
have been undermined and in the confusion of em- 
battled nations nothing fixed and stable remains. Thus 
far our duty to maintain neutrality has seemed plain and 
in the face of enormous difficulties this policy has been 
maintained. But the battlefield is close at hand. 
Across the seas we can almost hear the thunder and see 
the lightning of the great guns. The eastern winds 
bring to our shore the sulphurous fumes that rise from 
the tremendous struggle. Our insulation from the 
shocks of war is by no means complete and in recent 
months the president of the United States has solemnly 
warned the nation that it may not always be possible 
to maintain neutrality. The sky of our international 
relations is overcast and our future course uncertain 
and obscure. Amid clouds and darkness the American 
people need and seek guidance. 

The present war is not the only great European 
struggle since American history began. During the 
years that immediately followed the founding of the 
republic Europe was rent by a gigantic cataclysm which 
lasted for more than two decades. Our first presidents 
were obliged to face a situation which closely resembled 
the present crisis. France, first as republic and then as 
empire, stood at bay against a great coalition of allies. 
Then, as now, the allied coalition included England and 
thus possessed the dominion of the seas. Then, as now, 
the alliance was directed against the power which 



4 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

ranked first in military organization and which pos- 
sessed an army hitherto irresistible. Like the Germany 
of today the France of the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury by sheer military force dominated central Europe. 
Then, as now, a ring of allies encircled on land and sea 
the strongest state in Europe. Recognizing the resemb- 
lance between that European crisis and the present one 
let us look back to the example of the founders and 
upbuilders of the American republic, beginning with the 
first and greatest of Americans. The life and record of 
George Washington has been and will ever be an 
inspiration and an ideal to every patriotic citizen. 

In no uncertain sense does the American republic 
owe its very existence to George Washington. Not only 
did he fight eight long years to win independence but 
when the war was finished he willed and decided that 
the new-born sovereignty should be organized as a 
republic. The confederate Congress had lost influence 
and prestige; the discontented and mutinous army, 
having confidence only in Washington, invited him to 
assume the executive power. The first and greatest of 
Americans indignantly spurned the temptation to 
which Caesar and Napoleon and in our own day the 
president of the Chinese republic succumbed. At 
Newburgh Washington willed that in the western 
hemisphere the republican form of government should 
prevail. 

During the critical years that followed, Washington 
worked unceasingly to bring about a stronger and more 
effective union of the newly freed colonies. His personal 
influence and efforts brought together the Federal Con- 
vention of 1787 and as president of that body his guiding 
hand and profound statesmanship brought its work to a 
successful issue. Without Washington in the chair the 
convention could never have framed the Constitution 
of the United States. 

Washington thus made the Republic possible and 
established the Presidency of the United States. Of 
immense significance therefore is the example of his 
influence as the first president under the Constitution. 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 5 

Chosen unanimously by the electoral college, he never- 
theless came to know during his eight years of office 
partisan attacks and bitter personal opposition. The 
new government was called upon to establish its author- 
ity and Washington was obliged to quell disorder and 
put down domestic insurrection, A president with less 
strength and courage and statesmanship might have 
wrecked at the outset the new system of government. 
Before Washington's first term had ended the 
regicide French republic defied the encircling coalition 
of the powers and the great European war which ended 
only with the downfall of Napoleon began. Interrupted 
only by the year's truce of Amiens the great struggle 
tore Europe asunder for twenty-two long years. As 
soon as the struggle began Washington decided upon 
and announced his policy — 

"to maintain a strict neutrality unless obliged by imperious circum- 
stances to depart from it. To do justice to all and never to forget 
that we are Americans — the remembrance of which will convince 
us that we ought not to be French or English." 

In April, 1793, he wrote to the Secretary of State, 
Thomas Jefferson: 

"War having actually commenced between France and Great 
Britain, it behooves the government of this country to use every 
means in its power to maintain a strict neutrality. I therefore 
require that you will give the subject mature consideration, that 
such measures as shall be deemed most likely to effect this desirable 

purpose may be adopted without delay Such other measures 

as may be necessary for us to pursue against events which it may 
not be in our power to avoid or control, you will also think of, and 
lay them before me at my arrival in Philadelphia for which place 
I shall set out tomorrow." 

In 1793 neutrality was a more difficult and less 
popular policy than in 1914. In that earlier day all of 
our citizens were hyphenates — either immigrants or 
former English colonials. In revolutionary days nearly 
half of the inhabitants of the colonies were loyalists and 
the sense of habitual allegiance to Great Britain lingered 
on in many American hearts. Independence, the im- 
mediate issue, had been won, but at heart many Ameri- 
cans felt that they were English as against any other 



6 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

power. On the other hand, France had stood by our 
side in the Revolution and we were firmly bound to her 
by a permanent treaty of alliance. Besides, France had 
now followed our example in politicial organization, had 
overthrown her monarchy and become a republic. 
Naturally, therefore, many patriotic Americans felt 
that both historical obligation and politicial ideals de- 
manded that we should intervene on the side of the 
first European republic. 

President Washington, however, proclaimed neu- 
trality and to him neutrality meant scrupulous regard 
for our national dignity and the firm maintenance of our 
national rights. The announced policy was promptly 
put to the test. Citizen Genet, minister of the new 
French republic, assuming that our political sympathy 
made us a tacit ally of France, began using our ports as 
a base for French privateering against English com- 
merce and when the president protested he even ap- 
pealed from the administration to the nation. Wash- 
ington's action was immediate and final. To the Secre- 
tary of State he wrote: 

"Is the minister of the French Republic to set the acts of this 
government at defiance with impunity and then threaten the 
executive with an appeal to the people? What must the world 
think of such conduct and of the United States in submitting to it.'' 
Circumstances press for decision; and as you have had time to 
consider them, I wish to know your opinion upon them, even before 
tomorrow " 

The instant recall of the insolent minister was de- 
manded and secured. 

On the other hand England had persistently 
neglected her treaty obligations of 1782 and in addition 
had interfered with our commerce and frequently im- 
pressed American seamen into her service. Washington 
summoned from his exalted position the Chief Justice of 
the United States to negotiate as special ambassador a 
treaty with instructions "to indicate our rights with 
firmness and to cultivate peace with sincerity." The 
British government was notified in plain terms that if 
the present abuses continued war was inevitable and the 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 7 

tact and firmness of the distinguished Chief Justice 
secured the Jay Treaty of 1795. So long as Washington 
remained in the presidency the government of the 
United States maintained with unfaltering firmness a 
self-respecting neutrality that was strict and just, and 
John Adams succeeding in 1797, sturdily maintained 
the policy of Washington. 

Of Washington's attitude toward theoretic pacifism 
we cannot be in doubt. His revolutionary example is a 
convincing proof of his willingness to sacrifice property 
and life itself that principle might triumph. Six years 
before the Revolution he wrote: 

"That no man should scruple or hesitate a moment to use 
arms in defence of so valuable a blessing as 'the liberty which we 
have derived from our ancestors' is clearly my opinion. Yet arms, 
I would beg leave to add, should be the last resource, the dernier 
ressortr 

And again when the first shot had already been 
fired he wrote: 

" Unhappy it is to reflect that the once happy and peace- 
ful plains of America are either to be drenched in blood or inhabited 
by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in 
his choice.^" 

Of a meeting with one zealous pacifist, the Henry 
Ford of his day, Washington has left us an account. In 
the midst of the excitement that followed the publica- 
tion of the X Y Z correspondence this Dr. Logan, a 
Quaker, started for France to avert the war with the 
United States that then seemed imminent. Armed with 
letters from Jefferson he bustled about in Paris and 
after his return literally pushed himself into Washing- 
ton's presence. This is Washington's account of the 
greeting that he got, as set down in his journal Nov. 13, 
1798: 

"I advanced toward and gave my hand to Dr. Blackwell. Dr. 
Logan did the same toward me. I was backward in giving mine — 
he possibly supposing from thence that I did not recollect him, said 
his name was Logan. Finally in a very cold manner and with an 
air of marked indifference I gave him my hand and asked Dr. 
Blackwell to be seated. The other took a seat at the same time. I 
addressed all my conversation to Dr. Blackwell — the other all his 
to me." 



8 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

The persistent talk of the bustling Quaker finally 
Induced Washington to remark: 

"that there was something very singular in this; that he who could 
only be viewed as a private character unarmed with proper powers 
and presumptively unknown in France should suppose he could 
effect what three gentlemen of the best respectability in our country 
especially charged under the authority of the government were 
unable to do." 

We sometimes forget, too, that alone of our ex- 
presidents Washington became Commander-in-Chief of 
the Army of the United States and that the last months 
and weeks of his life were devoted to preparing for a 
war to maintain unblemished the national honor. In 
1798 the corrupt French Directory invaded American 
rights, refused a treaty and insulted the commission 
sent to make it by demanding bribes as a preliminary 
condition to negotiation. Pinckney's lofty reply, "Mil- 
lions for defense but not one cent for tribute" called 
America to arms. In the face of imminent danger the 
voice of the whole nation summoned back to military 
command the victor of the Revolution. On Indepen- 
dence Day, 1798 — the date is significant — Washington 
sent this reply to the informal inquiry of the Secretary 
of War: 

Mount Vernon, 4 July, 1798. 

* * * Nevertheless, the principles by which my conduct has 
been actuated through life would not suffer me, in any great emer- 
gency, to withhold any services I could render, required by my 
country; especially in a case, where its dearest rights are assailed 
by lawless ambition and intoxicated power, contrary to every prin- 
ciple of justice, and in violation of solemn compacts and laws, 
which govern all civilized nations; and this, too, with the obvious 
intent to sow thick the seeds of disunion, for the purpose of sub- 
jugating the government, and destroying our independence and 
happiness. 

In circumstances like these, accompanied by an actual invasion 
of our territorial rights, it would be difficult at any time for me to 
remain an idle spectator under the plea of age or retirement. With 
sorrow, it is true, I should quit the shades of my peaceful abode, 
and the ease and happiness I now enjoy, to encounter anew the 
turmoils of war, to which, possibly, my strength and powers might 
be found incompetent. 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 9 

A few days later in accepting the commission of 
President Adams he wrote from Mt. Vernon: 

"The conduct of the Directory of France towards our country, 
their insidious hostihties to its government, their various practices 
to withdraw the affections of the people from it, the evident ten- 
dency of their arts and those of their agents to countenance and 
invigorate opposition, their disregard of solemn treaties and the 
laws of nations, their war upon our defenceless commerce, their 
treatment of our minister of peace, and their demands amounting 
to tribute, could not fail to excite in me corresponding sentiments 
with those, which my countrymen have so generally expressed in 

their affectionate addresses to you Thinking in this manner, 

and feeling how incumbent it is upon every person of every descrip- 
tion to contribute at all times to his country's welfare, and es- 
pecially in a moment like the present when everything we hold 
dear is so seriously threatened, I have finally determined to accept 
the commission of commander-in-chief of the armies of the United 
States." 

When Washington accepted this commission he 
was sixty-six years old and had less than eighteen 
months to live. His letters of this last period deal 
almost exclusively with plans to prepare the nation for 
the struggle that then seemed inevitable. By this hard 
work Washington really wore out the life that he had 
dedicated to the cause of liberty and to the service of his 
country. On the last Christmas day that he ever saw, 
Washington took leave of LaFayette, the beloved aide 
and intimate friend of revolutionary days, but now the 
subject of a power with whom hostilities were im- 
minent: 

"You add in another place, that the Executive Directory are 
disposed to an accommodation of all differences. If they are sincere 
in this declaration, let them evidence it by actions; for words un- 
accompanied therewith will not be much regarded now. I would 
pledge myself, that the government and people of the United States 
will meet them heart and hand at a fair negotiation, having no 
wish more ardent, then to live in peace with all the world, provided 
they are suffered to remain undisturbed in their just rights. Of 
this, their patience, forbearance, and repeated solicitations under 
accumulated injuries and insults, are incontestable proofs; but it 
is not be to inferred from hence, that they will suffer any nation 
under the sun, while they retain a proper sense of virtue and 
independence, to trample upon their rights with impunity, or to 
direct or influence the internal concerns of their country. . . After 



lo LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

my Valedictory" Address to the people of the United States, you 
would no doubt be somewhat surprised to hear, that I had again 
consented to gird on the sword. But, having struggled eight or 
nine years against the invasion of our rights by one power, and to 
establish our independence of it, I could not remain an uncon- 
cerned spectator of the attempt of another power to accomplish the 
same object though in a different way, with less pretensions; indeed, 
without any at all." 

Happily, the government of the Directory was 
overthrown by Bonaparte, and friendly relations with 
France re-established. The commander-in-chief lived 
barely long enough to rejoice at the outcome. 

Washington's earnest regard for national prepared- 
ness speaks from every paper public or private. Each 
of his eight annual messages as president speaks out 
boldly. I quote at random; from the first message, 

1789: 

"Among the many interesting objects which will engage your 
attention, that of providing for the common defense will merit 
particular regard. To be prepared for war is one of the most 
effectual means of preserving peace. A free people ought not only 
to be armed, but disciplined; their safety and interest require that 
they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them 
independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies." 

From the fifth message, 1793, when war had 
already broken out In Europe: 

"The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, 
contrary to the order of human events, they will forever keep at a 
distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of 
every other nation abounds. There is a rank due to the United 
States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely 
lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, 
we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the 
most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be 
known that we are at all times ready for war." 

Washington's programme for the national defense 
was simple and definite. First, the navy; second, a 
mllltia of trained citizens, the true national army; and 
third, a military academy to educate the officers for this 
national army In military science and discipline. Less 
than forty-eight hours before his death Washington 
wrote his last letter, addressed to Alexander Hamilton, 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE u 

to endorse the establishment of a mihtary academy, 
adding that 

"while I was In the chair of government, I omitted no proper 
opportunity of recommending it, in my public speeches and other- 
wise, to the attention of the legislature." 

December 14, 1799, Washington died, his mind 
occupied to the last moment with plans for maintaining 
and defending the liberties that he had fought so nobly 
to secure. His words on the international situation of 
his day possess for us a quality of startling timeliness 
that we are wont to note only in the Bible and in 
Shakespeare. It is as though he were writing and 
thinking of our present complications. 

But if we are unwilling to listen to the counsels of 
the first and greatest American let us see to what pass 
the nation was brought by their negation. Before 
Washington had lain twelve months in the grave, a 
president of squarely opposing views was elected. 
Thomas Jefferson, Washington's first secretary of state, 
had resigned from the cabinet because of disagreement 
about foreign policy, and his administration as president 
was governed by different principles from Washington's. 
While ex-President Washington was in 1798 wearing 
his life out in preparing to defend the national honor 
against France, Vice President Jefferson wrote: 

"I am for peace with both countries. I know that both of 
them have given, and are daily giving, sufficient cause of war; that 
in defiance of the laws of nations, they are every day trampling on 
the rights of the neutral powers, whenever they can thereby do the 
least Injury, either to the other. But, as I view peace between 
France and England the ensuing winter to be certain, I have 
thought it would have been better for us to continue to bear from 
France through the present summer, what we have been bearing 
both from her and England these four years, and still continue to 
bear from England, and to have required indemnification In the 
hour of peace, when I verily believe it would have been yielded by 
both. This seems to have been the plan of the other neutral 
nations; and whether this, or the commencing war on one of them, 
as we have done, would have been wisest, time and events must 
decide." 

Jefferson was in theory a pacifist and an idealist. 
As minister to France his associations with the leaders 



12 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

of the French Revolution had been Intimate and he had 
been summoned in consultation on important matters 
of state. Accepting the doctrine of Hberty, equahty, 
fraternity, he looked with enthusiasm for its immediate 
accomplishment upon earth. Army and navy therefore 
were at once unnecessary and harmful. 

Pacifism was one focus of Jefferson's policy. The 
other was economy. To pay off the national debt, to 
reduce expenditure and to decrease taxation — these to 
him were the marks of a successful administration. 
What better way of reducing expenditure than by 
putting an end to military and naval appropriation.'' 
In his first annual message Jefferson disposes of the 
whole matter thus: 

"War, indeed, and untoward events may change this prospect 
of things and call for expense which the imposts could not meet; 
but sound principles will not justify our taxing the industry of our 
fellow-citizens to accumulate treasure for wars to happen we know 
not when, and which might not, perhaps, happen but from tempta- 
tions offered by that treasure. 

The whole amount is considerably short of the present military 
establishment. For the surplus no particular use can be pointed 
out. For defense against invasion their number is as nothing, nor 
is it conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept 
up in time of peace for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever 
be of the particular point in our circumference where an enemy 
may choose to invade us, the only force which can be ready at every 
point and competent to oppose them is the body of neighboring 
citizens as formed into a militia." 

Few presidents of the United States have enjoyed 
such popularity and personal power as Thomas Jeffer- 
son. Almost to the end of his second administration his 
will was unquestioned and his word was law. The army 
therefore, was reduced beyond the needs for garrison 
duty and the disused and unrepaired navy became 
unfit for service. In place of expensive ships coast 
defense was provided for by a swarm of tiny gunboats 
small enough to be pulled up on dry land and snugly 
housed in time of peace. For war each petty boat was 
to carry one gun, mounted, appropriately enough, in the 
stern. As these little craft cost only ^10,000 each, large 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 13 

payments on the national debt could be made from 
former naval appropriations. 

The policy of the pacifist president was carried out 
and in effect notice was served that the United States 
would not and indeed could not resent by the sword 
injuries from warring Europe. The events of the next 
years form perhaps the most humiliating chapter in the 
history of American foreign relations. The sarcastic 
sneers of the English foreign minister, George Canning, 
are matched by the unconcealed derision of Napoleon. 
The English ministry treated American claims with con- 
temptuous condescension while the French emperor 
openly flouted the United States. 

When, after the brief truce of Amiens, the great 
war in Europe reopened in 1803, Jefferson had been two 
years in the presidency. His message of that year is 
redolent of benevolence and optimism. 

"We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted 
up again in Europe, and nations with which we have the most 
friendly relations engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret 
the miseries in which we see others involved, let us bow with grati- 
tude to that kind Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and 
moderation our late legislative councils while placed under the 
urgency of the greatest wrongs, guarded us from hastily entering 
into the sanguinary contest and left us only to look on and to pity 
its ravages. These will be heaviest on those immediately engaged. 
Yet the nations pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil. 
In the course of this conflict let it be our endeavor, as it is our in- 
terest and desire, to cultivate the friendship of the belligerent 
nations by every act of justice and of innocent kindness; to receive 
their armed vessels with hospitality from the distresses of the sea, 
but to administer the means of annoyance to none.* ******* 

Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe and 
from the political interests which entangle them together, with 
productions and wants which render our commerce and friendship 
useful to them and theirs to us, it can not be the interest of any to 
assail us, nor ours to disturb them," 

Before two more years had passed, however, im- 
potent pacifism was reaping an appropriate harvest. 
In the annual message of 1805 there is less optimism and 
much dismay. 



14 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

"Since our last meeting the aspect of our foreign relations has 
considerably changed. Our coasts have been infested and our 
harbors watched by * * * * armed vessels, ***** They have 
captured in the very entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high 
seas, not only the vessels of our friends coming to trade with us, 
but our own also. New principles, too, have been interpolated into 
the law of nations founded neither in justice nor the usage or 
acknowledgment of nations. The interests of our constituents and 
the duty of maintaining the authority of reason, the only umpire 
between just nations, impose on us the obligation of providing an 
eflFectual and determined opposition to a doctrine so injurious to the 
rights of peaceable nations." 

Meanwhile these contemptuous estimates of Jeffer- 
son's policy were going back to the English and French 
foreign offices. 

Merry to Fox, May 4, 1806: 

"I consider it my duty to accompany this statement with a 
conviction on my part, from what is evident of the division of 
parties throughout the United States, from the weakness of the 
Government, from the prominent passion of avarice which prevails 
among every class of the community, and their intolerance under 
internal taxes, which must be imposed in the event of a war with 
any Power, that should his Majesty's government consider the 
pretensions that are asserted from hence as unjust, and be therefore 
disposed to resist them, such a resistance would only be attended 
with the salutary effect of commanding from this Government that 
respect which they have recently lost toward Great Britain." 

Turreau to Talleyrand, Jan. 15, 1806: 

"Your Excellency will of course understand that it is not a 
system of armed neutrality which Mr. Jefferson would like to see 
established. Everything which tends to war is too far removed 
from his philanthropic principles, as it is from the interests of his 
country and the predominant opinion. The guaranty of neutrals 
would repose on the inert force of all the Powers against the one 
that should violate the neutral compact, and whose vessels would 
then find all foreign ports shut to them." 

Naturally as months went by the English practice 
of impressing American seamen grew worse. American 
vessels were constantly stopped and searched for pos- 
sible British subjects. When a shot fired as a summons 
for search by the British Leander killed an American 
seaman, Jefferson announced that the offending vessel 
would not be allowed in an American port. The 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 15 

Leander^s captain promptly put in at Norfolk, trained 
his guns on the town, and under threat of bombardment 
within twenty-four hours demanded and obtained water 
and supplies. 

Worst of all, in the summer of 1807 the Chesapeake, 
an American national vessel bound for service against 
Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean, when just out- 
side the Virginia capes was ordered by a British sloop, 
the Leopard, to submit to search. Upon refusal of her 
commander, Barron, a broadside from the British 
frigate stretched more than twenty Americans dead and 
wounded on her deck. Utterly unprepared for battle, 
the Chesapeake was powerless to resist. One gun was at 
last fired by a live coal from the cook's galley and the 
vessel then surrendered. A search was made and four 
seamen were carried away. Public indignation at this 
outrage was ready to burst into flame but with the 
country at white heat the pacifist president proclaimed 
— the withdrawal of hospitality. On July 2, 1807, he 
addressed the nation thus: 

"Hospitality under such circumstances ceases to be a duty; 
and a continuance of it, with such uncontrolled abuses, would tend 
only, by multiplying injuries and irritations, to bring on a rupture 
between the two nations. This extreme resort is equally opposed 
to the interest of both, as it is to assurances of the most friendly 
dispositions on the part of the British government, in the midst of 
which this outrage has been committed. In this light the subject 
cannot but present itself to that government, and strengthen the 
motives to an honorable reparation of the wrong which has been 
done, and to that effectual control of its naval commanders which 
alone can justify the government of the United States in the exer- 
cise of those hospitalities it is now constrained to discontinue." 

The conscience of England might then be confided 
in to repair the injury in due time and the withdrawal 
of our hospitality would give a fillip to England's 
repentance. Even the pacifist president, however, 
decided that a slight diplomatic remonstrance would 
make the consciousness of shame more poignant. The 
paper was sent and Canning's sarcastic reply breathes 
contempt in every phrase. Language polite in form 
never threw an insult into stronger relief. 



i6 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

"The rights of England have existed in their fullest force for 
ages previous to the establishment of the United States of America 
as an independent government; and it would be difficult to contend 
that the recognition of that independence can have operated any 
change in this respect, unless it can be shown that in acknowledging 
the government of the United States, Great Britain virtually 
abdicated her own rights as a naval Power, or unless there were any 
express stipulations by which the ancient and prescriptive usages 
of Great Britain, founded in the soundest principles of natural law, 
though still enforced against other independent nations of the 
world, were to be suspended whenever they might come in contact 
with the interests or the feelings of the American people." 

At the hands of England, therefore, Jefferson's 
exercise of the pacific virtues met only insolent rebuff 
and the attack on the Chesapeake remained unredressed 
year after year. In the meantime France was forming 
her estimate of the American policy. Less than a month 
after Canning's insult General Turreau, the French 
ambassador, sent this report: 

"If the sentiments of fear and of servile deference for England 
with which the inhabitants of the American Union are penetrated, 
were not as well known as their indifference for everything which 
bears the name of French, what has passed since the attack on the 
frigate 'Chesapeake' would prove to the most vulgar observer not 
only that the Anglo-Americans have remained in reality dependent 
on Great Britain, but even that this state of subjection conforms 
with their affections as well as with their habits. He will also be 
convinced that France has, and will ever have, nothing to hope 
from the dispositions of a people that conceives no idea of glory, of 
grandeur, of justice; that shows itself the constant enemy of liberal 
principles; and that is disposed to suffer every kind of humiliation, 
provided it can satisfy both its sordid avarice and its projects of 
usurpation over the Floridas. 

It can be no longer doubtful that the United States, whatever 
insults they may have to endure, will never make war on Great 
Britain unless she attacks them. Every day I have been, and still 
am, met with the objection that the decrees of the French govern- 
ment have changed the disposition of the members of the Execu- 
tive, and especially of members of Congress. Both have seized 
this incident as a pretext to color their cowardice and extend it over 
their system of inaction; since it is evident that however severe the 
measures of the French government may have been, they weigh 
light in the balance when set in opposition to all the excesses, all 
the outrages, that England has permitted herself to inflict on the 
United States." 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 17 

The plain unvarnished fact is that we were despised 
and insulted by both parties in the great struggle. 
England expected us to prove and defend our right to a 
place among the sovereign nations, to resent injury and 
to stand firmly for our rights. When we would not 
fight France or even resent injury from herself she 
judged us to be contemptible. As Henry Adams says: 

"England had never learned to strike soft in battle. She 
expected her antagonists to fight; and if they would not fight, she 
took them to be cowardly or mean, Jefferson and his government 
had shown over and over again that no provocation would make 
them fight; and from the moment that this attitude was under- 
stood, America became fair prey." 

The conclusion of the French was equally definite. 
Only the servile dependent or the secret ally of England 
could submit tamely to such treatment. We must 
therefore be cowards or enemies and either alternative 
forbade cordial and friendly relations. 

In violating and destroying the rights of neutral 
trade England and France strove to outdo each other. 
British orders in council finally confiscated American 
commerce for England, while Napoleon's decrees at 
Berlin and Milan forbade all trade with Great Britain 
and made prize of every American ship that should 
obey the British orders or submit to British search. In 
the face of universal confiscation and seizure the pacifist 
administration sent this message to Congress: 

December 18, 1807. 
To the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States: 

"The communications now made, showing the great and in- 
creasing dangers with which our vessels, our seamen, and merchan- 
dise are threatened on the high seas and elsewhere from the belliger- 
ent powers of Europe, and it being of the greatest importance to 
keep in safety these essential resources, I deem it my duty to recom- 
mend the subject to the consideration of Congress, who will doubt- 
less perceive all the advantages which may be expected from an 
inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the 
United States. 

Their wisdom will also see the necessity of making every prepa- 
ration for whatever events may grow out of the present crisis. 

Th. Jefferson. 



i8 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

The administration majority in Congress responded 
to this courteous suggestion by imposing an embargo 
on all foreign trade. Orders in council and imperial 
decrees were powerless to make trouble, they argued, if 
American ships, American citizens and American goods 
were all kept at home. 

For more than a year lawful foreign trade was 
stopped and the industry and commerce of the United 
States lay prostrate. Seaports and shipyards were 
deserted and thousands of workmen were thrown out of 
employment. The resulting economic and industrial 
distress was very great. So far as the embargo was 
enforced it caused untold suffering but where it was not 
enforced it bred a spirit of lawlessness. Massachusetts 
and Connecticut were on the verge of rebellion and the 
rising tide of opposition and denunciation embittered 
Jefferson's last months in the presidency. It became 
evident that the embargo must be given up, but what 
could take its place .f* In desperation Jeiferson oifered 
both to England and to France to continue the embargo 
against the other nation provided that either would 
repeal its orders or decrees. In effect, the proposal 
abandoned neutrality and offered our commercial alli- 
ance to the nation that would first treat us justly. But 
our international standing had sunk so low that neither 
nation thought our alliance worth having. In Novem- 
ber, 1808, Jefferson could only report to Congress: 

" From France no answer has been received, nor any indication 
that the requisite change in her decrees is contemplated. The 
favorable reception of the proposition to Great Britain was the less 
to be doubted, as her orders of council had not only been referred 
for their vindication to an acquiescence on the part of the United 
States no longer to be pretended, but as the arrangement proposed, 
whilst it resisted the illegal decrees of France, involved, moreover, 
substantially the precise advantages professedly aimed at by the 
British orders. The arrangement has nevertheless been rejected." 

Because for years we had swallowed meekly English 
and French insults, each power had by this time come to 
regard us as the bondslave of the other and treated us 
accordingly. This was natural enough for even today 
belligerents give attention more readily to the offenses 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 19 

against neutrals committed by their enemies than to 
those committed by themselves. 

But the growing opposition to the policy of Jeffer- 
son found emphatic expression in Congress. Sturdy old 
Josiah Quincy lifted his voice in protest against a policy 
which ruined American trade and industry and de- 
stroyed along with it our national self-respect. His 
indignant protests are instinct with true Revolutionary 
spirit. 

"Take no counsel of fears. Your strength will increase with 
the trial, and prove greater than you are now aware. But I shall 
be told this may lead to war. I ask, are we now at peace.'' Cer- 
tainly not, unless retiring from insult be peace, unless shrinking 
under the lash be peace. The surest way to prevent war is not to 
fear it. The idea that nothing on earth is so dreadful as war is 
inculcated too studiously among us. Disgrace is worse. Abandon- 
ment of essential rights is worse." 

"Not only that embargo was resorted to as a means of coer- 
cion, but from the first it was never intended by the administration 
to do anything else effectual for the support of our maritime rights. 
Sir, I am sick — sick to loathing — of this eternal clamor of 'war, war, 
war!' which has been kept up almost incessantly on this floor, now 
for more than two years. Sir, if I can help it, the old women of this 
country shall not be frightened in this way any longer. I have been 
a long time a close observer of what has been done and said by the 
majority of this House, and for one I am satisfied that no insult, 
however gross, offered to us by either France or Great Britain, 
could force this majority into the declaration of war. To use a 
strong but common expression, it could not be kicked into such a 
declaration by either nation." 

Meanwhile, Jefferson set down this pathetic com- 
plaint: 

"If we go to war now, I fear we may renounce forever the 
hope of seeing an end of our national debt. If we can keep at 
peace eight years longer, our income, liberated from debt, will be 
adequate to any war, without new taxes or loans, and our position 
and increasing strength will put us hors d'insulte from any nation." 

A lovely philosophy indeed! Endure present In- 
sults submissively and meanly in the hope that by some 
mysterious process of growth we shall some fine future 
day get "beyond insult!" In the judgment of the war- 
ring nations of Europe the very right to national exis- 



20 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

tence was impeached for a people that did not maintain 
its rights with dignity or resent invasions of its self- 
respect. 

Thomas Jefferson was one of the few American 
presidents who have named their successors. His will 
dictated the elevation to the presidency of his loyal 
secretary of state, Madison, and the retention of Gal- 
latin as secretary of the treasury. A few months after 
his own retirement he addressed to Gallatin this final 
charge : 

"I consider the fortunes of our republic as depending, in an 
eminent degree, on the extinguishment of the public debt before we 
engage in any war; because, that done, we shall have revenue 
enough to improve our country in peace and defend it in war, with- 
out recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt should 
once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will 
be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of 
debt, corruption and rottenness, closing with revolution. The dis- 
charge of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our govern- 
ment, and it hangs on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall 
never see another president and secretary of the treasury making 
all other objects subordinate to this. Were either of you to be lost 
to the public, that great hope is lost. I had always cherished the 
idea that you would fix on that object the measure of your fame, 
and of the gratitude which our country will owe you." 

Jefferson's adjuration in effect places money above 
rights or principles or justice. Economy and reduced 
taxation, not dignity and national self-respect, were the 
stars by which the course of the Madison administration 
was laid. Is it any wonder that our foreign policy went 
from bad to worse .^ The embargo was abandoned and 
the government even offered to revive non-intercourse 
against either nation if the other would withdraw its 
offensive decrees. This time Napoleon made the bid 
but with insolent cynicism coupled with it the im- 
possible condition that the English decrees should also 
be withdrawn. Grasping even at this straw the govern- 
ment allowed American ships to sail for France where 
Napoleon's Rambouillet decree presently confiscated 
them. American protest only brought the derisive 
reply that the English decrees were still in force. 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 21 

Where any vestige of self-respect and patriotism 
remains, temper is at last exhausted, and this chapter 
finally reached its end. The indignant spirit of the 
South and West found expression in Calhoun and Clay 
and the voice of the nation demanded war with England. 
For the national honor Clay spoke out boldly: 

"Sir, is the time never to arrive when we may manage our 
affairs without the fear of insuhing his Britannic Majesty? Is the 
rod of British power to be forever suspended over our heads ? Does 
Congress put on an embargo to sheher our rightful commerce 
against the piratical depredations committed upon it on the ocean : 
We are immediately warned of the indignation of offended England. 
Is a law of non-intercourse proposed : The whole navy of the 
haughty mistress of the sea is made to thunder in our ears. Does 
the president refuse to continue a correspondence with a minister 
who violates the decorum belonging to his diplomatic character by 
giving and deliberately repeating an affront to the whole nation : 
We are instantly menaced with the chastisement which English 
pride will not fail to inflict. Whether we assert our rights by sea or 
attempt their maintenance by land — whithersoever we turn our- 
selves this phantom incessantly pursues us. Already has it had too 
much influence on the councils of the nation. It contributed to the 
repeal of the embargo — that dishonorable repeal which has so much 
tarnished the character of our government." 

There was less reason for fighting England in 18 12 
than in any year since 1807, less reason for fighting 
England than for fighting France, but England was 
accessible, France was not. English ships hovered off 
our shores and Canada was conveniently at hand for 
conquest. The party of Jefferson and Madison was 
forced into war — a war which was undertaken in passion 
and for which the government had made no preparation. 

Highly characteristic of the pacifist is the delusion 
that he is invincible in war — if he only were not too 
proud to fight. He dreads war, he will not prepare for 
war, he will endure humiliation and Insult rather than 
defend himself, but just because he does not fight, he 
argues that if he did make up his mind to fight, the 
world would lie at his feet. He loves such phrases as 
"the nation would arise In its might," "an army of a 
million men In twenty-four hours." When war became 
actual Jefferson dreamed of the conquest of the con- 



22 LESSONS FROM THE FATHERS 

tinent. The Floridas, Cuba and Mexico would drop 
into our lap and as for England he wrote: 

"Our present enemy will have the sea to herself while we shall 
be equally predominant on land and strip her of all her possessions 
on this continent * * * * We have nothing to fear from their 
armies and shall put nothing in prize to their fleets. Upon the 
whole I have known no war entered into under more favorable 
auspices." 

The dream of triumph quickly vanished. American 
historians use a certain discriminating tact in treating 
the war of 1812, throwing into prominent relief some 
plucky ship duels, Perry's victory on Lake Erie, and 
Jackson's successful markmanship at New Orleans after 
the treaty of peace had been signed. The unvarnished 
facts are that the American flag disappeared from the 
ocean as completely as the German flag has today; the 
vaunted invasion of Canada broke down completely; 
while from the northeast, northwest and southwest 
invading armies established themselves on American 
soil. Detroit surrendered. New Orleans was threatened 
and Maine down to the Kennebec was annexed to 
Canada. British ships haunted and ravaged the Atlan- 
tic coast, and in 18 14 a body of less than five thousand 
marines captured and burned the national capital. 
Although the war was two years old no preparation for 
the defense of Washington had been made. The hastily 
summoned militia fled at the first fire and thanks to 
their fleetness suffered small loss. The president and 
his advisers ran with equal speed, leaving a cabinet 
dinner to be eaten by the British officers. The annals of 
modern history furnish no parallel to this prerogative 
instance of unpreparedness. After tv/o years of war 
the capital of a nation was captured and destroyed by a 
petty force which met no opposition and suffered no 
loss! Servia, the other day, made an infinitely worthier 
resistance. This was the fulfilment of Jefferson's fore- 
cast of May, 1812: 

"The acquisition of Canada, this year, as far as the neighbor- 
hood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM FOSTER PEIRCE 23 

us experience for the attack on Halifax the next, and the final 
expulsion of England from the American continent." 

These pages of history are written for our learning. 
In this second decade of the twentieth century the 
patriotic American ought to read carefully and with an 
open mind the narrative of the opening years of the 
nineteenth. Then, as now, all Europe was swept by the 
storms of war. Then, as now, America was able to keep 
apart in the early stages of this conflict. Washington 
proclaimed neutrality and adhered to it with firmness 
but he preserved the national honor unblemished be- 
cause he was convinced that " to be prepared for war is 
the surest means of preserving peace." With him 
neutrality would continue only so long as "justice can 
be obtained by fair and strong representations." If 
Washington's policy had prevailed with his successors 
the history of a decade of national humiliation and of 
the war of 18 12 would never have been written. Less 
than any other nation can America claim mercy at the 
bar of history if she neglects this lesson and is again 
found unprepared. 



Champlin Printing Co. 

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